LeBron James enters the "Dream Team" debate, Says he feels current U.S Basketball team can defeat iconic 1992 gold medal winning team
LeBron James became the most recent NBA player to jump into the discussion of whether the current U.S Olympic team could beat the 1992 Olympic Team that went on to win gold at the Barcelona Summer Games.
James, who is a member of the current roster and is currently in London with team U.S.A preparing for their opening game against France, sat down with ABC News “Nightline” host Cynthia McFadden and said:
"As a competitor you never want to say that you will lose, no matter who you are going against. The '92 Dream Team paved the way for all of us ... We understand what they did for our game, but we also are big-time competitors as well, so if we got the opportunity to play them in a game we feel like we would win, too.”
The 1992 Olympic team consisted of 11 future Hall of Famers including Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson. They won the 6 games en-route to a gold medal in Barcelona by an average of 43 points and were hailed as the greatest team to have been put together in any sport.
The debate about which team was better initially started when reporters out the question in front of Los Angeles Lakers All star shooting guard Kobe Bryant during training camp for the U.S Olympic Team in Las Vegas. Kobe said that he thought the current team could beat the 1992 “Dream Team”, which led to rebuttals by Charles Barkley and Michael Jordan, members of the “Dream Team”.
"For him to compare those two teams is not one of the smarter things he ever could have done," said Jordan about Kobe’s comment.
It remains to be seen what reaction James’ statement draws from former players and NBA fans, as James is considered the best player in the NBA in current times. Bryant has since clarified his stance and said that all he was trying to say what that he thought that the Dream Team could be defeated by the current roster, not that the current roster was better than them.
"They are a better team. The question was 'Can we beat them?' Yes we can. Of course we can,” said Bryant recently.
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